IT is a like a plot from a gangster film. But garage owner Richard Blair got in way above his head when he plunged into the murky crime underworld.

Running up debts to hard men, he turned to threatening innocent victims with a knife to try to pay the enforcers he owed.

Blair demanded money from his victim through texts and telephone calls before turning up at his Gateshead home armed with a three-inch bladed lock-knife.

He confronted the man and, in front of his pregnant girlfriend, continued to demand cash, jabbing him with the knife and threatening to stab him in the eye and shoot him if he did not pay up.

Blair was running an MoT centre in Ford Street, Ouseburn, Newcastle, at the time.

He admitted he needed cash to pay unnamed hardmen, who were putting pressure on him to pay debts, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Blair, 31, of Linbridge Drive, West Denton, Newcastle, admitted blackmail by making an unwarranted demand for £1,000 with menaces on October 15 2008.

His previous convictions include an eight-year jail term in 2001 for conspiracy to rob, possessing a shotgun with intent and arson.

Andy Rutter, defending, said Blair turned to blackmail after receiving threats to himself, his family and his business, which was burnt to the ground while he was on remand in custody.

“What initially began as a business opportunity turned for him into his worst nightmare, so he being blackmailed turned into a blackmailer,” he said.

“Having exhausted all his savings – every penny he had made from legitimate business – he was desperate which is why he did what he did.

“He had nowhere else to turn. He couldn’t go to the police because of the inherent dangers to his family.

“He doesn’t seek to condone what he did, but to explain it. Since his remand in custody, his business has been destroyed.

“That has not deterred those who believe he owes them money. Threats persist despite him being in custody, despite those people knowing he has no means of paying what they say he owes.

“He is really between a rock and a hard place, even in custody.”

Jailing him for five years, Judge John Evans told Blair: “Your purpose in making those threats was said to be to secure the return of money to which you said you were entitled.

“Well even if that had been the case, the means you adopted to seek its return were unlawful and quite plainly terrifying to your victims.

“In fact, you have conceded to the probation officer that you knew fine well you had no entitlement to the money you were demanding.

“Rather than seeking to reinforce what you regarded as a legitimate claim, you were demanding money you knew you had absolutely no entitlement to, but rather trying to extort from the victim money to pay off debt you owed elsewhere, to what appear to be professional criminals .

“You made the choice not to involve police, which is the obvious course, instead resorting to blackmail.

“Fortunately, you left the victims without inflicting physical injury although plainly you inflicted considerable psychological harm.”